---

Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill [HL]

Time does not allow me to pay full tribute to the richness and depth of this debate. I am sure that we are all grateful to all those who have participated in it with their particular knowledge. I will touch on a few points. The Bill tells fathers that they are unnecessary. This has symbolic value. If the Government had not decided to remove this provision, clinics, parents and children would have carried on pretty happily as they are now. The attempt to remove it has stirred up this debate and obviously very deep feelings. There is no such thing as a right to a father, or indeed the right to a baby. The latter may be even more important; I refer to the comments made by the noble Lord, Lord Sewel. As an academic lawyer, I cite the American jurist, Hohfeld, who said that there is no right to a baby and there is no duty to give anyone a baby; it is a privilege. There is a need for a father, not a right to a father or a right to a baby. The law is of course discretionary. We know that the rates of in vitro fertilisation treatment for single women and gay and lesbian couples is going up, probably with no harm done at all, but this is about the symbolism of the law, which is very important. If we were to be totally pragmatic about it, as the noble Baroness, Lady Hollis, argued, we would be leaving birth certificates as they are, but that matter is coming up in a separate amendment. In response to the request by the noble Baroness, Lady Barker, I will be happy to place in the Library the research that I, and others, have relied on. We must look at things through a child’s eyes. Do we not call it a tragedy for a child if his or her father is killed, especially during pregnancy? Does the baby appreciate that his fatherlessness is planned rather than accidental? In that, I support the noble Lord, Lord Warner. The need for a father goes back millennia. It is a very modern phenomenon indeed, as yet unproven, that there is no need for parents of both sexes. Almost throughout history, the loss of one or the other—not having both—has been regarded as most unfortunate, to put it mildly. We are where we are and the removal of the statement that a child needs a father—the view that a father is a discretionary factor—sends a message. I say that in response to the noble Lord, Lord Turnberg. I was puzzled by the reference by the noble Lord, Lord Winston, to Nazis, which I thought was uncalled for. Also, I am afraid that love is not all in the upbringing of children. Love is a beginning. We all know that parents need to give their children more than just love.